Corona Virus, Covid-19

and Climate Change

Unprecedented threat of the industrial way of life

working silently from within: invisible & unpredictable

death a lottery mostly amongst the vulnerable and elderly

changing habits, relationships, business and institutions

upturning social understandings of security and care

protecting others rather than self the new responsibility

the invisible, intangible becomes real in its potential effects

processes rather than substances become recognized

as the sources of interconnected, systemic change

much of our world is upended, nothing stays untouched

speed and indefinite extent an unusual combination to handle

we are challenged to be, think, act and choose differently

the impossible becomes possible once all consent

Is not the re-thinking & re- learning required for Covid-19

what had been needed for the last fifty years for climate change?

now its achieved within weeks & months for an invisible virus

a highly infectious global enemy invading us from within

the difficulties are analogous, different is only the temporality

the timescale of one is compressed & vastly extended in the other

for Covid-19 ‘now’ is open-ended, for climate change unending

too uncertain the one, too vast the other, both seem unreal

both require new modes of concern, of care and of compassion

to enhance survival in near and distant futures for us and successors

© Barbara Adam, 140320/190320